Scam letter alert after $67m 'offer'

A Wanganui woman hopes no one gets "sucked in" by a postal scam after she received a letter informing her she had been left a large sum of money.

The woman, who showed the letter to the Chronicle, was less than impressed with the offer of £37 million ($67 million) from a deceased relative's estate. The letter was postmarked Manchester.

"They went to the trouble of finding my name and posting it."

The woman said she would never respond to the request to contact "Richard Hills consultant" at a UK telephone number.

He had written that his deceased client had died in an "ugly car crash with his supposed next-of-kin, his wife, leaving nobody with any knowledge of the deposit".

"How compassionate is that, to say he died in an ugly car crash?" said the woman, who did not wish to be named.

Furthermore, she does not have the same surname as the deceased, and she believes that if there was such a large amount of money, there would probably be close relatives who would have call on the money before her.

"It's dodgy. I just hope no one gets sucked in."

Releasing the funds "is very confidential and 100 per cent risk-free" said the letter.

But this was one woman who would not be laughing all the way to any bank.